U.S. HIT HARD BY SURGING IRAQ VIOLENCE

The U.S. military announced the deaths of 11 more service members on Wednesday, bringing this month's death toll of American troops to 70 during a surge in violence against U.S. forces unseen in almost two years.

At the current pace, October's death count would exceed the number of U.S. deaths in January 2005 when 107 U.S. troops were killed as insurgents tried to disrupt the first round of national elections after the fall of the former regime. The body count, if the violence continues unfettered, could also approach the grim mortality rate of November 2004 when 137 U.S. troops were killed during fierce fighting in Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq.

This latest surge of violence comes at a difficult time for the White House as some Republican members of Congress have become more vocal about doubts that Iraq is on the right path. The latest reported fatalities include a soldier who was killed Wednesday afternoon in southern Baghdad and nine soldiers and a Marine who were killed in and around the capital on Tuesday.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said on Tuesday that this most recent spate of violence wouldn't affect President Bush's outlook on the war.

"No, his strategy is to win. The president understands not only the difficulty of it, but he grieves for the people who have served with valor," Snow said in Washington.

"But as everybody says correctly, we've got to win. And that comes at a cost."

U.S. commanders cautioned at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in late September that a spike in violence was almost certain.

There was a surge in violence in the three previous Ramadans since the invasion, and U.S. commanders said they were expecting about a 20 percent increase in violence this time.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a military spokesman in Baghdad, said last week that commanders on the ground "assume it will still get worse before it gets better" and that violence would likely increase in the last days of Ramadan.

Caldwell also attributed the increase in attacks to the aggressive posture from U.S. and Iraqi security forces in the capital. U.S commanders have moved thousands of troops to Baghdad from elsewhere in the country in an attempt to curb sectarian strife.

What is unclear is how much of the latest violence against U.S. troops can be attributed to militias and how much has come at the hands of anti-American insurgents.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who heads a government led by Shiite religious parties, traveled to Najaf on Wednesday to seek consensus with Muqtada al-Sadr, who commands one of the country's most powerful political blocs and militias, and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Iraqi Shiites' most revered cleric.

"I came so that the security and political situation can be stabilized, allowing the government to turn its attention to reconstruction," al-Maliki told reporters between meetings with al-Sistani and al-Sadr.

This latest cycle of violence has hit Iraqi civilians even harder than U.S. forces.

According to an Associated Press count, October is also on the way to being the deadliest month for Iraqis since April 2005. In October, 767 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence, an average of 45 every day.

That compares to an average daily death toll of about 27 since April 2005. The count includes civilians, government officials and police and security forces, and is considered a minimum based on AP reporting. The actual number is likely higher, as many killings go unreported.

The 11 U.S. service members killed on Tuesday and Wednesday died in a series of attacks.

A soldier with the Multi-National Division-Baghdad was gunned down about 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday in southern Baghdad. Six other soldiers from the division were killed in a span of about six hours on Tuesday.

Four of those soldiers were killed early Tuesday morning, when a roadside bomb struck the vehicle they were riding in west of the capital. Less than three hours later, another soldier from the division suffered fatal wounds when his patrol came under small-arms fire in northern Baghdad.

A roadside bomb killed another soldier from the division in a separate attack north of Baghdad when the vehicle he was riding in was struck.

Three Task Force Lightning soldiers assigned to the 3rd Heavy Combat Brigade Team, 4th Infantry Division were killed and another was wounded during enemy action in the Diyala province, north of the capital.

A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died from wounds suffered during enemy action in Anbar, the military reported.